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Gregorian Chants Today

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Gregorian chant is still performed today. Its chants are today parted into:

- the Ordinary chants of the Mass: those are the Gregorian chants, the text of which remains the same, independently of the feast day of the day. These are:

- the Proper chants of the Mass: those are the Gregorian chants, the text of which is varying according to the feast day on which the Mass is celebrated. The main songs are:

Each day, further, monastic communities gather -seven times during the day, and once at night- to sing the 'Divine Office', or the 'Office of the Hours' (or the canonical hours of the monastic Office). This liturgy of the Hours (the three 'major hours' -the most solemn moments: Matins, Vespers (which are dedicated to the Creation of the world), Compline; the 4 'small hours' -which are shorter offices: Prime, Terce, Sext (which is dedicated to the crucifixion of Christ), None) is a set of offices, the base of which is mostly the singing of psalms. 'Antiennes' are small songs which frame the singing of the psalm (the antiennes are forming the introduction and the conclusion), as responsories, during the offices at night, are songs which cut the readings of the Bible and the Fathers (it's a typical meditation song). Hymns are the most popular songs during the offices. They are allowing to enter in the liturgy or the celebration). The people which which have to participate into the liturgy of the Hours are the priests, the monks, some clerics, and all those which their vocation, generally, oblige to it. The term 'Breviary' may also be synonymous to the 'Divine Office'

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site Learning and Knowledge In the Carolingian Times / Erudition et savoir à l'époque carolingienne, http://schoolsempire.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 12/28/2010. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
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